Indemnity Insurance - Who Pays?

ValHaller

jaybeetoo wrote: »

How much money is it?

Unless there is a good reason for it, how much much money is it should not come into the equation. If the reason is good, then I would say 'how much money' could come into deciding to pay a small sum yourself even if it is the other side's responsibility.

But there is too much chiselling out of sums of money on spurious pretexts and without a clear reason being given, it is looking like a further corruption of business ethics.

tBagpuss_2

It's likely this has nothing whatsoever to do with commission. Solicitors rarely receive any commission and have to declare it to you if they do.

However, solicitors are becoming increasing aware to the need to avoid risk, as the way in which complaints etc are deal with is slanted very very heavily in favour of complainants. Mortgage lenders are much more picky then hey were in the past so the reality is that something which may not have been of any concern when you bought the house may now be relevant.

of course, it's also possible that this is something which should have been picked up when you bought the house but was missed.

Ask your solicitor to explain what the issue is. However, if there is a problem with the title which you are seeking to transfer then it would normally be up to you to put it right (by, in this case, paying for the indemnity insurance) Of course, you can refuse and he buyers in turn can either grit their teeth and pay, or refuse to exchange.

How much is the premium?

mlz1413

When I bought my old house there were 2 odd things that came up, one of the things I sorted out before selling (some 15 years later) but the other thing I couldn't do anything about and it was just part of the house's history.

I was completely upfront with the buyers and told them what I had found out over the years and they were happy with everything so we agreed a price and continued.

Their solicitor decided quite late on that an indemnity insurance should be paid for which was £200, I flatly refused to pay and was happy to lose the sale. My buyers were happy to continue but also didn't want to pay telling their solicitor that they were aware of the problem and as the last 2 home owners hadn't had an issue or paid or an indemnity policy they didn't want the insurance. Their solicitor refused to continue, so the buyers ended up paying because it would cost more to instruct a new solicitor at that point.

So who pays really is down to who gives in first!

Richard_Webster

If there is something wrong with your rtile then bwesically it ius down to you. If your solicitors didn't tell you about it when you bought that is not relevant now but you might have recourse to them for not doing so.

Without knowing the precise circumstances it is difficult to be definite, but it is frequently the case that when the title was first registered the Land Registry were not provided with details of some old covenants.

Your solicitors may have known the area and seen covenants before on other properties nearby and assumed they were the same and so felt the risk was too small to tell you about. However the problem is that it is very difficult to prove that the covenants are the same and that they are innocuous. So buyer's solicitor has to play safe, if only to protect his client when they sell.

ValHaller

tBagpuss wrote: »

It's likely this has nothing whatsoever to do with commission. Solicitors rarely receive any commission and have to declare it to you if they do.

This is buyer's solicitor demanding this from seller. Commission would not have to be declared.

Leodogger

jaybeetoo wrote: »

How much money is it?

My solicitor rang this morning to say that she had made enquiries and an insurance indemnity cost would be only approx. £50 but she is adamant she does not think this is valid or necessary as apparently the "missing" item in the deed could not be enforced as the company who built the development no longer trades. She is going to insist to the buyer's solicitor that she does not think this insurance indemnity is necessary and state her reasons for believing so and see what they come back with.

Also it is worth mentioning that I noticed from the letter she forwarded to me from the buyer's solicitor that the company is Countrywide Solicitors, the company recommended to us by the same estate agent as the buyer employed for the purchase as is handling our sale, at that time when we were appointing a solicitor we asked them for a quote for conveyancing and they wanted over twice the sum of two others we had quotes for and the one we eventually went with, is about a 1/3rd of the cost :eek:
Makes me think they are working overtime to prove they are dotting the " i's" and crossing the "t's" to try to prove they are earning their money !! All it is doing is creating hassle where there should be none. They also quibbled about the amount they insisted needed to be held by our solicitor against any shortfall in community charges from the housing association that might come up when the end of year accounts are done, even though I had it in writing from the housing association that they would settle for half the amount originally asked for.

Like I say, looking for hassle where there should be none.

By the way there was no mortgage involved from the purchaser, he is paying cash so the missing deed element was not down to a building society requiring this to be sorted.

zappahey

Richard_Webster wrote: »

If there is something wrong with your rtile then bwesically it ius down to you. If your solicitors didn't tell you about it when you bought that is not relevant now but you might have recourse to them for not doing so.

We had a similar situation and it was helpful that we used the same solicitor that we used to buy the house in the first place. They were "motivated" to resolve the problem that they missed the first time around..

vet8

We are going through a similar aggro with the sale of our flat.
Apparently now the council are thinking of saying it is built on contaminated land even though this was never mentioned when we bought the place 3 years ago.

Or solicitor says that they have tightened up the searches and find things now they did not in the past. Who knows?

But it looks as if we will have to fork out £200 odd for one of these absolutely useless, money wasting, rip off indemnity insurances. It annoys me, as if it ever pays out, (have any of these ever paid out?) it is the buyer who will benefit, so I think they should pay, but the only way to get the sale to go through any time this year is for us to pay. GGRRHHHH.

Leodogger

Just as an update for anyone interested, the problems brought up by our buyer's solicitors have taken us right up to the line (completion date) ! We had to arrange our telegraphic transfer of funds today as requested by our solicitor to ensure that the money was there by close of play tomorrow and we had still not exchanged contracts at 5.30.p.m. this evening when we are due to move house on Friday (a date agreed last week by all solicitors involved)! We have been told by our solicitor that we now have to exchange tomorrow.

It turns out that the buyer had returned a signed form 2 days ago by post which his solicitor had insisted upon before exchange of contracts! This had not been received by them until 5pm today and we had had no response at all on the other property deed problem which they were insisting we needed to take out an insurance indemnity policy on to stop any comeback on future conveyancing of the property. We also found out that the solicitor was in fact a sister company of our estate agent and there is a lesson to be learned there. We had a quote from them after being recommended by our estate agent, they wanted 3 times as much for the conveyancing work and have turned out to be a company of jobsworths ! They have delayed the sale of our property and took us right up to completion day virtually, as we complete on Friday, the day after exchange. My own solicitor was ready to exchange on Monday and would have done so if not for this jobsworth who wanted to ensure they would be completely protected from any comeback from agreement of a £50 retention (instead of £100) of our community charges (which was agreed in writing from the managing agents) and the other matter seems to have fizzled out after they were insisting on an insurance indemnity policy from us.

Be warned when choosing a solicitor, big is not best and never pick one that is tied to the estate agent - we didn't and ours was 1/3rd the price and the most efficient.

Hopefully we will be moving on Friday, BUT I take nothing for granted

Riggster

You'll be fine. The next two days will be a stress, but look past them.